Prior to his current diplomatic post, Churkin was his country’s Ambassador to Belgium from 1994 to 1998, and to Canada from 1998 to 2003. He was then Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, a post he held from 2003 to 2006.

Churkin won some notoriety in 1986 when, as a 34-year-old second secretary, he was selected by then-Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to testify before the United States Congress on the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident. This was reported as the first time in history a...Read More